Danville to memorialize Medal of Honor recipient

By BERNARD BAKER
Danville Register & Bee
Published: March 17, 2008

A special memorial is being assembled to pay tribute to the sacrifice of Archer T. Gammon, Danville’s only Medal of Honor recipient.

The memorial will include a bust and three plaques, including one from a ship named in Gammon’s memory.

Gammon made his mark during World War II, serving with the 9th Armored Infantry Battalion in Bastogne, Belgium. On Jan. 11, 1945, his troops came under enemy fire during the Battle of the Bulge, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Gammon charged 30 yards through hip-deep snow and knocked out a three-man machine-gun crew with grenades, the honor society’s documents indicate.

Shells from a German tank were being aimed at his soldiers. Gammon got within 25 yards of the tank before he was hit by an 88 mm shell. He shot and killed two other German soldiers before he was killed.

“By his intrepidity and extreme devotion to the task of driving the enemy back, no matter what the odds, [Staff Sgt.] Gammon cleared the woods of German forces, for the tank continued to withdraw,” the citation reads.

There will be a ceremony when all the parts of the Gammon memorial come together.

The ship named in his honor was taken out of service in 1973. The Gammon was a cargo vessel.

Around Danville, a part of the Danville Expressway, a bridge going to Dan Daniel Memorial Park and the local chapter of Disabled American Veterans are named in Gammon’s honor.

Calvin Gammon, Archer’s brother, said Danville has done a lot of little things to honor his brother, but nothing as significant as this memorial.

“This is the one big thing that really shows proper honor to him,” Calvin Gammon said.

He thanked Davis Newman, organizer of the Danville-Pittsylvania County Veterans Memorial, and local veterans for remembering his brother’s sacrifice.

“I’ve seen the bust,” Gammon said. “It’s beautiful. It’s almost as if he was there.”